Capitol Hill Haunts by Tim Krepp

Author:Tim Krepp
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-03-10T16:00:00+00:00

OLD HOWARD

The area of Capitol Hill around the station house was middle class, but as you traveled farther south, especially before World War II, you could trip and fall down the social ladder quite quickly. Hundreds of young sailors and marines were housed in the area, and they were not considered among the nicer element of society. The Navy Yard itself was a major industrial facility, employing thousands of mechanics and other workmen. And these were the respectable element of the area, those who had gainful employment and responsibilities. The area teemed with a tougher crowd, and the vicinity of the Navy Yard was not a place for strangers to go, especially after dark.

Today, 8th Street SE, now cleverly rebranded as Barracks Row, is booming with new and innovative restaurants and stores, but at one point it was a rather rough stretch of town, with bars and saloons tending to the Yard workers. The narrow streets on either side were lined with cheap frame houses and even flimsy shacks, not the respectable brick-and-stone townhouses of the nicer parts of the Hill.

It’s hard to tell this today, walking through what remains. Most of it was torn down after World War II to make the SE-SW Freeway and housing projects, which in turn have been torn down. The alley shacks are long gone, and the few remaining wooden houses are quaint and well maintained. You’re far less likely to run across a drunken lout these days, and if you do, he’s most likely a Hill staffer coming out of a martini bar, not a factory worker neglecting his wife and kids.

In this once tough neighborhood, right behind the Marine Barracks, there stands a row of those houses. Some are the original wood. Some have been replaced with brick and stone over the years. Few have any inkling of the excitement that once took place on that block of 9th Street, between G and H SE.

Our story starts on Saturday, October 14, 1871, with an article in the Washington Star. It centered on a family, the Boneharts, who had recently moved into one of the two-story houses. They were renting the place from the widow of a marine named Howard, who had passed away a few months before. Howard was known as a “frightfully wicked man who abused his family and all around him, and finally died blaspheming his Maker and cursing his wife and children.” Apparently, Old Howard was no more pleasant in death than he had been in life. Mrs. Howard and the children soon fled, renting the house to the Boneharts.

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